Horn Point Professors Named U.S. Fulbright Scholars

Early March brought the announcement that Ming Li and Matthew Gray, faculty members of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, had been named U.S. Fulbright Scholars for the 2024-25 academic year. 

Dr. Matthew Gray

The U.S. Fulbright Program strives to increase understanding between citizens of the U.S. and partner countries through cultural and educational exchange programs, playing an important part in U.S. diplomacy. Fulbright alumni include thousands of leaders and international experts in academics and other fields. The program offers unique opportunities for its scholars to teach and conduct research abroad.

Dr. Li will collaborate with scientists in Portugal on coastal harmful algal bloom (HAB) forecasting and warning systems. Dr. Gray is set to spend time in Sweden testing hypotheses about oyster types that may thrive in warmer, more acidic oceans because of climate change.

Li earned his doctorate in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics from Oxford University and has been at UMCES’s Horn Point Laboratory since 2001. His research interests lie largely in physical oceanography, including air-sea interaction, turbulent mixing processes, and internal waves. Besides using numerical models to address these and other issues, he has actively engaged in researching environmental problems such as hypoxia and ocean acidification. A major focus of his most recent research was the regional impact of climate change, sea level rise, storm surge, and estuarine and coastal dynamics.

Dr. Ming Li

“Dr. Li is one of the most influential thought leaders of his generation in the field of environmental fluid mechanics spanning coastal resilience and the vulnerability of our coastal ecosystems to changing climate,” said UMCES President Peter Goodwin, who added that Li “is a research leader and an exceptional collaborator.”

“I’m honored and excited to have received this award, which will allow me to foster relationships with oceanographers at the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere in Portugal,” said Li of his Fulbright scholarship. “My ultimate goal is to bolster U.S.-Portuguese collaborations on research of HABs as well as advance the state-of-the-art models for predicting HABs in coastal oceans and estuaries.”

Pennsylvania-born Gray thought as a kid that he wanted to be a radiologist. But, when he got to college, he “learned that you could be a doctor but also study the environment and not have to live your life inside the hospital.” At the same time, he embraced surfing, which started him “heading in this marine direction.” He earned his doctorate in Fisheries Science at Oregon State University in 2016, and then did postdoctoral work at the University of Maine in 2017. That was the same year he joined the faculty at UMCES.

As an ecophysiologist, Gray has focused his research on understanding the response of marine invertebrates to environmental conditions as well as the ecological benefits offered by those organisms. He became particularly interested in the services shellfish can provide to an ecosystem. His studies are meant to provide relevant data to help inform stakeholders, management, and policies in Maryland and beyond. Recently, he has investigated how brooding species of oysters may have evolved their traits to cope with acidification stress. Toward that end, he has worked informally with Swedish scientists at the University of Gothenburg for two years.

“Our short-term goals include conducting acidification experiments with the European Flat oyster, but my hope is the award will help establish long-lasting collaborations with researchers in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe,” said Gray, who added that he is “very excited about this opportunity.” This is likely in part because of his love of travel, which he’s done to such places as Hawaii, Italy, Brazil, and Chile.

“These awards exemplify the quality of scientific research being done at Horn Point-UMCES,” said director Michael Sieracki.

Li and Gray will begin their research programs this fall.